A biology instructor who believes books and lectures aren’t enough has won a 2015 Carl F. Wittke Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
Rebecca Benard, who came to Case Western Reserve University in 2009, distinguished herself by helping students develop skills and hold themselves to standards that will serve them throughout school, in their careers and life beyond college.
In addition to turning her courses into active-learning sessions for up to 100 students, she holds what her colleagues call “sit-ins”—office hours in which a handful to a dozen or more students come and work together.
“Teaching, to me, is a group effort,” Benard said. “I need students to buy in. If you have buy-in, it’s amazing.”
Students have responded by nominating her for a Wittke each of the last four years.
Benard teaches anatomy and physiology to first-year students. “I’m really lucky; I have these students all year,” she said. “I get to know them really well and see them develop from their first day of college to the last day of the academic year.”
A student who nominated her wrote: “Dr. Benard not only teaches her students anatomy, but she also teaches them to self-teach. If the students work with her as a learning partner, then she sets them up for success in their future classes as a more engaged, purposeful and independent learner.”
Benard’s teaching has evolved from a single-minded effort of delivering content to considering what she wants students to know and what students should be able to do. In addition to learning the subject matter, she wants her students to develop the ability to solve problems, think critically and communicate in writing and orally.
More than 90 percent of her anatomy and physiology students are nursing students. “They need to learn to chart succinctly and communicate face to face,” Benard said.
Coursework can be tough. Benard holds students to high standards and encourages them to join in the sit-ins, where they can drive the study sessions.
“As a small group, we’ve had many ‘aha’ moments, when both she and all of us students are incredibly excited about a cognitive breakthrough,” one student nominator wrote. “It’s gratifying and fun to finally understand a huge, confusing concept, thanks to the extra effort and positive attitude Dr. Benard brings.”
Benard also teaches the development and physiology course for biology majors. This year, she turned the twice-weekly lecture into a hybrid class.
Online, students view videos of lectures that Benard created in digestible 10-minute segments. In class, students work in groups of four to six to solve problems and analyze case studies involving the new materials. The groups must present answers to her or undergraduate teaching assistants Nikhil Mallipeddi and Diana Christian.
Provost William A. “Bud” Baeslack recently came to one of Benard’s classes to announce she’d won a Wittke.
While doing so, Baeslack quoted from another student’s nomination: “One Friday afternoon in office hours, I asked Dr. Benard a question. Instead of answering it straight out, she had me go up to the whiteboard and actively talk and write through the question. She showed me that I actually knew the information.”
Benard cried when Baeslack finished. The student had validated her efforts.
The Wittke award was established in 1971 in honor of Carl Wittke, a former faculty member, dean and vice president of Western Reserve University. The Wittke Award is presented each year to two Case Western Reserve faculty members during commencement. Benard shares the honor with Colin Drummond, professor and assistant chair of biomedical engineering.